Primrose Everdeen (if Katniss hadn't volunteered)

Chapter 2

I wake up to Effie gasping. She is staring at me. Then I realized she is also staring at something behind me. I look up and realize that I am still in the arms of Peeta. I quickly close my eyes and pretend to still be asleep. I hear Peeta wake up and feel him quickly look from Effie to me and back to Effie.

He then whispered, “Nightmares.”

“Get dressed you two and meet Haymitch and I at breakfast in 20 minutes,” said Effie as she left the room.

Peeta left my room to get ready in his room which was across the hall. He must have heard me screaming last night and come in to calm me down. I was very grateful that he had showed up, because his strong arms had kept me safe all night. I pulled on a plain white shirt and black pants that had appeared in the drawer as  if by magic because I knew for a fact they weren’t there last night. Looking back on this morning, Effie must have thought it very strange that Peeta was in my room. She might have even thought we were in love. Peeta is 16, and I am only 12. Plus, I barely even know him! I think he was just trying to be nice. But why? Was there another reason? I was very baffled by all of this, so I decided to go eat some breakfast.

As I got there, Peeta was having a conversation with a very drunk Haymitch. Peeta looked very concerned, and was that anger I saw reflect in his eyes?

When they saw me quietly enter the room, they stopped talking, and Peeta waved me over to a seat. I served myself with a load of fancy capital food. Over the past 12 years of my life, I have always been jealous of the capital children. They get loads of delicious food, huge and very fancy houses, and most of all they are safe from the hunger games. Back home in district 12 we get none of these things. Sometimes only a piece of bread a day to eat, tiny shacks that fall apart to live in, and a reaping every year in which every child between the age of 12 and 18 must enter their name one time, or more. I tried some of everything, and it was all so good. My favorite was something yellow and very juicy that I learned later was called pineapple. After I am finished eating my fruit, I zone back in and realized that Peeta was questioning Haymitch on how to survive. Haymitch started laughing.

“Ha, if you want to live find water. Then find shelter then food and finally, kill some people,” Haymitch says in a slurred, drunk voice.

“Ha ha very funny not!” Peeta screams in exasperated tone. He takes a two pronged fork and aims it perfectly at Haymitch’s hand. Unfortunately, Haymitch moves his hand so Peeta’s fork slightly misses. I see this as my opportunity to back away slowly, so I gradually fade into the background. Once I am at the door, I slip out silently. Before I am out of earshot, I hear glass shattering, Haymitch screaming, and over everything Effie yelling, “That is cedar!”

I am just going to stay away from any fights. I don’t know what I am going to do in the arena where I will be forced to fight. I hope I have Peeta to protect me. I am not sure where to go now, so I end up walking further away from breakfast until I reach the back of the train, an outdoor patio. There I find a couch, and I sit down. I feel myself slipping into the dark world of dreams. Before I could cross the adjoining bridge I hear a bird singing. I look up and recognize the bird as a mockingjay. I blink once and the train is past the mockingjays nesting branch, but the bird ends up following the train, and it somehow ends up on the table next to me. I feed the bird some of the bread I took from the table. Once the greedy bird gets its talons on the crumbs, it squawks and flies away.I just sit there in silence until Peeta walks to the patio to find me staring into the distance. He comes and sits next to me.

“Are you ok?” he asks with genuine care in his voice.

“Yeah fine,” I hear myself say.

“You don’t look fine are you sure? You look confused.”

“I am actually. About everything. The capital, you, Haymitch, Effie, and everything else. I can’t make sense of anything, especially you, I don't Know why you are sticking up for me or why you comforted me last night.”

“Prim, we are both in this together. I am older, and it is my job to protect you. You are a skilled person  and I know that,” says Peeta. “Just show Haymitch that.”

After that Peeta kisses me on the forehead, and he stands up and walks out. Now I am really confused, does he like me or not? He is making it very hard to tell. Because of our age difference a relationship would be a bit awkward, but he is genuinely nice, and that is a good thing right?

I did rest my eyes on for a few hours while on the patio couch. Soon it is time for lunch. I eat my soup and pineapple quickly and quietly for about ten minutes, and then our train stops abruptly at the capitol station. I catch a glimpse of brightly a brightly colored platform packed with equally colorful people. They are cheering and jumping up and down. None of the capital people can wait to see us, the people that will be viciously killed for their entertainment. I never get mad, but I do now. I realize I hate these people. I have forever for multiple reasons. If I want to get sponsors that could make the difference between my life and death I may want to be nice to them for now at least. I decided to join Peeta at the window. After about one minute of waving Peeta puts one arm around my shoulders and kept waving the with the other. The crowd went crazy because of this. I think I smiled a little at how easy they were to make happy. After the train stopped Peeta and I walked to the train exit. Peeta jumped down quickly and I looked from my feet to the platform. I was nearly five feet from the ground. I knew being four foot 9 it would be hard to get down. I was about to make the courageous jump when all of the sudden Peeta came up and picked me off the train and put me on the platform next to him. Once again the crowd started screaming and oooing and ahhing.

“Keep it up. They love us acting like this,” whispered Peeta. Ah ha! So it is an act. That takes some pressure off of everything. Effie and Haymitch then led us to a huge building with exactly 24 rooms in it. Just then a peacekeeper came up to me and took me by the arm and led me towards the last room on the right. Nerves washed over my body like a typhoon.